Joshi Spotlight: AJW in March to May 2000

AJW IN SPRING 2000:
* It’s time for more Zenjo! With a bunch of random tag matches from March and May! We start off with a bit part of the AJW/JWP feud that’s been going on, with Manami Toyota leading a team of AJW wrestlers against JWP in a Gauntlet Match! And things culminate with a WWWA World Title defense as Manami Toyota defends against Ran YuYu! Meanwhile, Tag Champions Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa continue their year-long feud against Lac Cachorras Orientales in a title defense!

KAORU ITO vs. MOMOE NAKANISHI:
(March 23rd)
* Super-clipped to nothing, but important to the hierarchy as Ito is getting pushed rapidly but Momoe is very credible.

Momoe immediately hits a run-up moonsault and dive to the floor, then two missile kicks and a German- someone has the zoomies, I see. Ito counters a dragon suplex to a huge release rock bottom, throws some stomps, then scores a wheelbarrow suplex to stop a flash-pin. Momoe fights for that dragon again, but charges right into a vicious Lariat and Ito pins her at (2:32). I’m honestly not sure if this was clipped at all- I don’t SEE any clips but that’s a very short runtime.

GAUNTLET MATCH:
MANAMI TOYOTA, YUMIKO HOTTA, KUMIKO MAEKAWA, NANAE TAKAHASHI (AJW) vs. DYNAMITE KANSAI, RAN YUYU, COMMAND BOLSHOI & KAOKO HARUYAMA (JWP):
(March 23rd)
* This is a pretty good-sized match, pitting the #1 & #2 wrestlers in Zenjo and some allies against Kansai, the former JWP ace and the current JWP Champion (Ran YuYu) plus their goons. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Haruyama before. She’s a second year who lasts all the way to 2015. Manami’s in red, Hotta black, Kumiko black/light blue and Nanae’s in that amazingly garish red/orange tassel atrocity. Kansai’s in green/black, Ran red, Bolshoi red/white & Haruyama black & orange (with tassels). Kansai has black hair for the first time in eons.

Nanae impresses by charging Kansai before the bell, as this is apparently Gauntlet style. Nanae nearly gets caught in Splash Mountain (sit-out razor’s edge) but instead walks into a lariat for three (0:39). Kumiko’s on Kansai in seconds, firing off pump kicks like nuts until finally getting worn down in holds, but finally nets an Ax Kick in the corner and looks to have Kansai at a disadvantage. The vet has to counter with a lariat to buy herself some recovery time. She counters a kick with a backdrop suplex but Splash Mountain is again avoided and NANAE hits the ring again to fight her, bringing in Bolshoi, but the huge fight on the floor leads to everyone holding both girls down for a “10” Count-Out at (4:06)- lol we’re doing fuck finishes here too? Is this Survivor Series? Bolshoi/Hotta goes next, and Hotta shockingly almost sells some shotei palm strikes before countering to a Tiger Driver. Bolshoi gets the ugliest Manami Roll ever (Hotta noticeably has to save the spot by holding her in place), but Hotta effortlessly beats her with a rolling kick into the Pyramid Driver (cross-armed ligerbomb) at (5:38). Haruyama runs in with ROOKIE FIRE but immediately gets shotei’d for the pin at (6:10). lol did Hotta get told she was jobbing and get to eat two weaklings alive in seconds as payment? Ran is the last one left, and immediately gets swatted and nearly tapped out, causing her to kill time on the floor. A long test of strength spot and Ran SCREAMS when Hotta hauls her into an armbar, desperately making the ropes and looking tearful as she holds off in the corner. The psychology here seems clear- Hotta is way too much for her, and is taking her lightly while Ran is unable to take the lead. Ran tries a sleeper but eats a rolling kick, dodges another but flies off onto feet, and is Tiger Driven for two. Ran beats on her with chairs outside, trying for a count-out, hits a German & Flying Kneedrop for two-counts, but Hotta jujigatames her until Time’s Up at (12:38) in their round. You gotta win in six minutes?

Funnily enough, Team Zenjo is declared the winners, Manami like “Oh hey! I won without having to do anything!”. But Haruyama finds that unfair and talks shit, and is about to try and fight until Ran demands a shot- and now we have a regular tag match to the delight of the fans, Manami promptly hitting a Straightjacket German for two. Missile Kick rolls Ran over, but Kansai holds Manami up top so Ran can hit a Super Samoan Drop, and everyon hits Flying Stomps on Manami for two! Haruyama does Manami’s own rolling cradle to her, then Team AJW gets dumped and half-heartedly stands around to eat JWP dives. But Haruyama nails her own team and so AJW flies back with their own, getting better reactions. Manami hits her Running One-Hand Dive, but gets caught up top and Haruyama hits a Super Powerslam for two. She tries to no-sell Haruyama’s attacks but gets murdered by a sneak missile kick by Bolshoi and Kansai Splash Mountains her- Kumiko saves. A quadruple-team is stopped and Manami gets her own cradle on Haruyama to wild applause. Moonasult- JWP saves. German and Haruyama sandbags Manami so it barely gets over, and another Moonsault results in a “Fuck YOU!” bridge. So Manami hits the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex for the win at (6:33). Lol nobody else even got in- this was all Manami.

A very random match with a lot of slack-ass wrestling mixed in with some people trying. The crowd wasn’t into JWP’s stuff at all (they have very little presence on the scene at this point and weren’t really well-known) but were big homers for Zenjo, giving it an interesting dynamic. Unfortunately Zenjo’s wrestlers weren’t terribly interesting in putting over JWP’s, as Hotta was largely ingoring everything and dominating and Manami was half-hearted at best. And that last fall was WEIRD- obviously Manami hadn’t wrestled at all but why was she in there for the ENTIRE tag portion? And where was Hotta? You can see her periodically but she didn’t matter one bit after the time over save for shotei-ing Kansai to prevent a final pin break.

Rating: **1/4 (fun in parts but very slack-ass)

TAKAKO INOUE & MIYUKI FUJII vs. TOMOKO WATANABE & CHAPARRITA ASARI:
* This is basically freelancer Takako with a jobber against two named stars, AJW’s upper-mid Tomoko & freelancer ASARI, so I’m guessing Fujii is eating the pin. We’re JIP with Takako STFing Tomoko, but Fujii immediately eats a facecrusher. We’re clipped to a Doomsday Device Cross-Body on the kid, Takako saving, then repeatedly setting Fujii up with stuff. A missile kick/backdrop suplex gets two on ASARI after Tomoko bowls the ref over. ASARI clumsily heads up to bring Fujii down with a Super Frankensteiner. Takako keeps cheating to help Fujii, and they actually trick the fans with a Fujii counter-punch getting a CLOSE two, but ASARI immediately recovers with her Michinoku Driver for the pin (2:48 shown). Funny use of Takako- as a freelancer she appears on Neo and other promotions a bit, but is largely still “just a card-filler” Zenjow wrestler.

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. MOMOE NAKANISHI & KAYO NOUMI:
* This one is interesting, because LCO has been murdering Momoe for like two years straight, and she never has a strong partner to really back her up. So of course this one is harmless Noumi being paired up, haha. However, this was supposed to be Wacky/Noumi, but Wakizawa had an ear problem, so her opponent is mysterious… The crowd is utterly silent as Noumi heads out with no theme music, and still doesn’t really react when Momoe dashes in and nails LCO from behind.

Kayo, then Momoe, hit planchas to LCO on the floor as the audience is almost frighteningly quiet (lol they apparently quieted the music cuz it’s Bananarama- I had to be told), and Mita & Momoe counter each other’s finishers before Mita flattens her with a Blazing Chop and LCO dump them for their Assisted Tope Con Hilo/Dive combo, already getting into the “LCO Template” with that and a brawl around Korakuen, this at least winning back the fans. A bit, as they’re quiet again in-ring with Kayo selling and Momoe booting Shimoda from the apron has to win them back a bit. But Shimoda just comes back on both of them with her falling clothesline, and they doa nother comeback tease before Kayo FINALLY clotheslines her down a few times- Shimdoa stuffs a German to pay off Kayo hitting it later, but they REALLY telegraph Shimoda getting her feet up on a splash and she Ax Kicks Kayo for two. Momoe keeps saving, like after a Blazing Chop, and Kayo finaly hits her double-wrist armsault to escape- Momoe immediately tries her Dragon Suplex but Shimoda hits her with a banana yellow chair. But she dodges Mita trying it and Germans her!

Momoe keeps fighting for the Dragon and Mita is just too big, Godzilla-ing out and booting her down for two. We get some really ugly wrestling when Momoe breaks out of a grapple but just weirdly stands there and Shimoda seems to take a sec to decide on an Ax Kick. Crowd actually laughs at that one! Shimoda & Momoe do some ugly countering with Momoe’s run-up moonsault mixed in. Shimoda with the Tiger Suplex & Somersault Ax Kick for twos- Kayo saves and stops the DVD/Ax finisher, then Shimoda dropkicks the shit out of Momoe AND Mita, but only Mita sells it (lol Momoe was supposed to dodge but hits a Dragon Suplex anyways). Shimoda does her “fire up and run into a suplex” move with Momoe doing a waistlock but swapping to a full nelson mid-air. LCO do their Double Superbomb (lol Shimoda slips before they take off) and we FINALLY get a good reactoin for Momoe skicking out on her own! Momoe gets a sunset flip powerbomb off the 2nd rope, but over-rolls past Shimoda and fails the pin- Mita just levels her with the chair so Shimoda can hit the Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) while Mita DVDs Kayo, and that’s the pin at (11:14 shown).

ooooof that was one of the worst LCO performances ever, as they just could not get on the same page or get into a groove all match long. Just an ugly, sloppy mess with no flow, as the kids tried a hot start but it didn’t get over, then LCO kept cutting off comebacks, killing them all, then the fans didn’t pop much for the ACTUAL comebacks, and we had all sorts of ugly spots that exposed the business, had too much hesitation, and more. I think they legit had a last-minute inclusion of Momoe and it buggered their entire match plan. Add to that Shimoda’s increasing sloppiness and hesitance out there and her wrestling two people she absolutely dwarfs in terms of size, and you have some real ugliness.

Rating: *1/2 (almost painful to watch at times, with very little flow- absurdly bad given LCO and Momoe still have great matches routinely)

MAY 12:

JAPANESE TAG TEAM TITLES:
KANA MISAKI & TSUBASA KURAGAKI (JWP) vs. MIHO WAKIZAWA & KAYO NOUMI (AJW):
(May 12th)
* The young JWP team is holding AJW gold, and now the Zenjoy loyalists are trying to win them back! Misaki is a slender type in frilly yellow gear, while Kuragaki is short and squat, looking more athletic… and kind of LLPW-ish, with her multicolored garish onesie.

We’re JIP with Kuragaki hitting a cartwheel handspring move on Noumi in the corner, but Noumi clotheslines both girls and slaps Kuragaki around. Misaki quickly stuffs her, however, hitting a wheelbarrow suplex, but they telegraph a spot where Kayo lands on her from a backdrop superplex attempt and Misaki is either a REALLY good seller or ate shit hard on that bump, because she’s uncomfortably stiff and can barely be moved by her opponents. She kinda/sorta pulls Wakizawa off the top but Team JPW are made to eat Wacky’s dive to the floor, then Misaki eats a Rocket Launcher, Kayo’s ass looking like it heat dead-center in her chest, then Wacky hits a beautiful flying splash for two. Kuragaki has to save after the Fisherman’s Buster, but Misaki manages a huge flying senton, landing flush. Kuragaki FINALLY gets tagged in and Team JWP takes all day to set up a Double Backdrop Superplex, Miho barely lifting her shoulder, but Noumi stops a rocket launcher and Wacky hits a Super Frankensteiner for two! Misaki accidentally boots Kuragaki and a German on her gets two, and Misaki saves AGAIN after a Fishermans’ Buster, and a Double Superplex finally puts Kuragaki away at (6:00 shown of 14:46). New Japanese Tag Champions!

This was a pretty scrappy, ugly match, with a lot of good Rookie Fire but a lot of bad Rookie Slip-Ups, people often kinda missing things or being the wrong kind of stiff- a few people landing ass-first on each other LOOKS vicious and probably legit hurts (not that this would actually lower the match rating any). Entertaining stuff for the most part. Misaki sorta looked injured for a bit there, and I noticed she kept her head down for the entire rest of the match, despite being in most of it. Maybe she was hurting but fought through it, I dunno.

Rating: ** (we got the back half of it only, but it seemed like the “ugly, scrappy fun” that typifies Wakizawa matches)

WWWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES:
TOMOKO WATANABE & KUMIKO MAEKAWA vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* The LCO/Team Blue feud continues! This time it’s for the belts, after LCO won the bloody cage deathmatch a month prior! LCO are now in matching rose gold, white & black gear- quite nice! This is sadly quite clipped.

FALL ONE: Kumiko divebombs Mita during hte intros with a rolling kick and nearly pins her with an Ax Kick as Shimoda has to roll over them. Mita fires up a Blazing Chop to halt another Ax, but Kumiko rips her head off with the sweeping roundhouse kick and BOOM- pinned at (0:25)!

FALL TWO: Mita acts KO’d and is still hesitant and verrrry measured getting up, manages to duck the same roundhouse as before but gets WIPED on the backswing and rolls to the mat for two- perfect selling. Mita Blazing Chops Kumiko down and finally tags out, just lying against the turnbuckle from the inside to put those kicks over. Shimoda gets Kumiko’s Ax Kick to nail Tomoko and hits her own a couple times for two, but gets kicked trying her somersault flying version- but Mita immediately blasts Kumiko with the chair and dives onto Tomoko so Shimoda can hit the Death Lake Driver for three (1:01 shown).

FALL THREE: LCO immediately charge a recovering Team Blue and go for their Assisted Tope/Dive combo, but JESUS FUCK Shimoda slips on the top rope and SMOKES her back on the edge of the ring apron, thankfully recovering with a grumpy look. Time for a Korakuen walk! Tomoko comes back bloody (I can’t see shit so have no idea what happened) and starts blasting away at Mita, but charges into a DVD for two. Ax Kick/DVD gets the same! Tomoko continues to have great selling- you can’t just bleed; you have to look like you’re DYING and only your inner fire keeps you alive. Kumiko saves Tomoko from the Death Lake Driver but Tomoko’s moonsault misses! A big DVD/Flying Ax Kick and Kumiko HAS to save this time, and Tomoko dodges the ax kick to Kumiko can hit HITS, and the Screwdriver (backdrop to vertical ligerbomb) gets two! Hellsmasher (high-angle tiger driver)- Mita pushes them over! Tomoko is fading and so just tries the same move again, but Mita uses her scientific skills and wipes both babyfaces out with a pink chair, but Tomoko dodges their super-finish and Shimoda just lands on Mita. Hellsmasher/Ax Kick… Mita saves! Finally the spush her away and an ax kick sets up the Hellsmasher for the final pin at (6:21 shown). Tomoko’s “Phew! That finally did it!” smile is terrific. Post-match, Tomoko’s all like “yay” in a promo but MOMOE comes out and NanaMomo are thus set up as the new challengers.

Tomoko’s relieved, happy expression sticking out of a wall of blood is tremendous character work.

This was a very abridged one, obviously, but the final fall was good. Typical LCO scrappiness and while I find they’re fading a bit as an act (defaulting to nearly random offense instead of something with a real flow to it, and over-doing their big moves way too early), they’re still pretty good on their worst day. Tomoko’s selling was excellent- that kind of driven-but-dying thing is great to get the fans into things. Kumiko… has some great kicks, but like LCO, overdoes the one finish SO DAMN MUCH it renders it kind of boring.

Rating: *** (even this clipped match appeared quite good and had a dramatic finish)

WWWA WORLD TITLE:
MANAMI TOYOTA (AJW) vs. RAN YUYU (JWP):
* !!!!!! They’re putting MANAMI TOYOTA against Ran YuYu?! For the Red Belt no less! This is probably the biggest possible match they could run in the interpromotional rivalry- Champion vs. Champion! Ran is the current JWP Openweight Champion, though only one belt is one the line. Of course, despite both being top champions of joshi promotions, they’re on entirely different stratospheres- Toyota debuted in 1987 and is a longtime star and main eventer- Ran debuted in 1995 and only got elevated like… last year. Never mind that JWP is floundering and dying and she’s thus the top wrestler in a promotion on its deathbed. Ran looks super jobbery in her “plain red shirt & black shorts with no detail”, but walks up and chest-bumps Toyota during the intros. Unfortunately this illustrates that Manami looks like Godzilla compared to any Class of 1995 wrestler. I anticipate this with equal parts curiosity and dread- “Toyota Outranking Her Opponent” matches tend to be “LOL I BURY U” fests where the whole match is to establish how little a chance Manami’s opponent stands against her, BUT Ran is challenging for her belt and Manami usually at least tries in Red Belt matches. But there is no universe in which Ran has a chance here, and the audience HAVE to know that.

Right at the bell Manami grabs a German and missile kick, misses a moonsault but handily switches to the Straightjacket German (commentary have long since forgotten if that’s the Japanese Ocean or Cylone Suplex, and in fact it’s neither), can’t get the Japanese Ocean Cyclone but settles for another German and her spine dropkick. But she gets cocky and ran knees her out of another attempt, then misses another missile kick as Ran stays on her. Manami ignores a sloppy enzuigiri but gets brought off the top with a suepr Samoan drop. Ran does these odd “knee to the chest while hauling them down” moves. RESTHOLD TIME! Though points for Ran trying to activate “Bendy Toyota” days of old, pulling as hard as she can to make it looks like she’s actually trying. Toyota actually looks displeased until she manages to hit the “waistlock” portion, which is her cue to talk shit and no-sell it, stomping Ran after escaping and stretchign her face in humiliating fashion. She does her Muta Lock variant, complete with clapping and dancing like Kyoko would do, torturing Ran for a while until just… casually letting go and they reset. Kinda funny to see someone openly not press the advantage and just say “enough of that”. They tease a knucklelock for ages (Toyota OF COURSE lifting her hand all the way up to establish “lol u r short” then mockingly copying Rans’ martial arts stance to draw laughs). Ran fights dirty with hairpulling so Toyota spazzes out and bites her, the match getting aggressive with “shove the rookie off the ropes” spots but ending with running boots to the head and her Octopus stretch.

After like 8 minutes of “mostly fucking around”, Manami drops her in a SUPER high-angle backdrop suplex and hits two missile kicks, but gets German’d off the second rope- Ran throws an American-style missile kick but ohhhhhh shit here’s the “No-Selling Manami” and poor Ran swings high and ends up in the rolling cradle. But Manami takes the Mulkey Bump missing a dropkick, only to immediately come back on the floor and hit the top for… a bad fall appearing to strike her head on the ring apron on the way down. OOPS. But that seemed to have zero desperation or shock to it- like she meant to do that and they’re creating drama, as she crumples and curls up on the floor and they hold off on the match for a while. The fans clap as the ref restarts things and Ran jumps in with an enzuirigi that dumps Manami again and she starts grinding away on the floor as Toyota starts holding her arm in to sell. Flying Enzuigiri gets two. German & Straightjacket German keep it up, and ran works a hold on the injured arm. Ran misses a flying knee, but clocks Manami with an elbow for two, misses another, then hits it again- Ran fights her into two brainbusters and it’s the “Fuck YOU!” bridge! Ran goes up and gets dumped, leading to a plancha and then the Running Springboard Plancha, then her Suicide Missile Dropkick. Moonsault gets two. Ran escapes the Ocean Cyclone but gets caught in the Japanese Ocean Suplex (the double-wrist one), then missile kicks her in the back of the head and hits the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex for three at (21:35).

well, uh, that was certain A Match. They went LONG and so had to find ways to keep it interesting, especially as Ran was obviously not picking up the win here. Manami wasn’t quite in “LOL I BURY YOU” mode but teased it a couple times, and really didn’t appear that pressed, even when selling the shoulder after “slipping”. The pin attempts sure got closer, and she was always holding her shoulder at her side (except when she needed it for the springboard, lol), but she never had that “desperate last-second kickout” energy or even a lot of verbal selling (which used to be her TRADEMARK in matches- nobody screamed in holds like Toyota). And then of cousre it was comeback time and she got alot of her shit in. Ran kind of just seemed “along for the ride”, stoically going through everything and not really acting like she wanted to win, either. Like, what’s even her finisher? Neither woman acted like anything here was it. Also, dig Manami just going through “the usual” to beat Ran- the single JOCS would NEVER pin Hotta, Kyoko or someone on that tier at this point- even Ito can kick out of several. So Ran just going down to “the usual” is saying something. The match wasn’t actively bad, but certainly not actively great, either- it was wrestled at a very 6/10 effort most of the way through, with neither party seeming that interested. The best thing I can say is that 22 minutes didn’t feel like a slog.

Rating: **1/2 (just a very basic-ass, 6/10 effort match- really long for something that wasn’t that dramatic, yet not a slog)

So that’s another couple months of Zenjo down! Looks like the LCO feud with the Tag Champs is finally over(ish) and they’re moving on to NanaMomo, which will be interesting (and probably a way to elevate Momoe to another tier, much less Nanae). The feud with JWP is petering out and never seemed to mean much (they’re doomed to die by year’s end, but get reborn quickly-ish). We’ll see if a top angle develops!